Phals in moss not reported for 5 yrs

[EarlV]

I have a few Phals like the one in the picture that have not been reported in 4-5 yrs. They are healthy. They started out in moss but it is all rotted away now. The pot is just filled with one big root ball. I tried last month potting up one from a 4 inch to 6 inch but killed it. These were not reported basically out of fear. I kill 50% of the orchids I repot. Given they are happy should I just leave them as is.

[Clawhammer]

If there is no moss left and the plant is happy I see no need to repot over than aesthetics.

[KingKong]

It is becoming a little bit rootbound. The roots could even end up splitting the pot.
You could stick it in a bigger pot to give the roots more space.
A bit of perlite to fill the void would give the roots a bit of protection without causing you any issues you are worried about.
Normally I would say remove any left over media from inside the rootball but after 5 years it won't degrade any further and you have said you don't want to so just leave it and fill the outside space up will some filler that won't rot. I mention perlite which is ideal for such purposes but you can use pebbles, clay pebbles, lava rocks, even a bit of bark should be fine, you want your new pot to just be slightly bigger, not too much bigger so you don't add too much new media.

Edit: soakk the roots well and massage them firmly before removing from the pot, this will loosen the roots bond to the plastic pot which could rip off if you just jerk it out. So do it gently and check no roots are being pulled as you remove it.

No damage = no stress and a good repot should not be noticed at all by most orchids.

I'ts when you fracture a root, rip it off or a lot of times during tranport when you first receive an orchid that damage can be done which can then lead to rot several months down the line and if not noticed to the death of the orchid but with no damage a repot should not even cause a days delay in growth

[DirtyCoconuts]

the flowers are hypnotizing


i have a few phals like this where they are just root in a cup...they are fine as long as you take care of them.

be wary that things can turn quickly if you are not vigilant about keeping them well cared for...that pot does not look like it breaths very well so be mindful

[Roberta]

If it is just roots with no medium, and it is growing well, I would not worry about being "rootbound"... orchids like this are epiphytes - growing with no medium. If they're getting enough water and humidity in the root zone, and there's plenty of air so that there's no rot, it ain't broken, don't try to fix it. If the roots start to be unhappy in the pot, it will make aerial roots seeking a better environment. If you start to get lots of those, then you could move to a larger pot. But since the roots you have are adapted to their environment and show no signs of distress, leave them alone. If you DO need to remove the plant from the pot, consider just cutting that flimsy plastic pot - then separating roots from pot will be easy. But for now, I'd be inclined to just let them do their thing.

Just a thought about what potting actually does... it's a way to get humid air into the root area. If they're getting humid air in the root zone without any medium, you have actually achieved what the orchid wants, without any work at all. Everything you do (or don't do) should be oriented toward the objective - humid air in the root zone. (We repot when the enviroment starts to be bad, such as old mix choking off air) There clearly are lots of ways of achieving the objective, and in your case it seems to be happening automatically. Enjoy!

[hypostatic]

Yeah, if it's happy, why risk killing it to repot it